What is Digg?111 Comments
- inactive, on 12/20/2007, -1/+73Don't discount ***** music being the problem.
- inactive, on 12/20/2007, -1/+64Coincidentally, quality was at an all time low, too.
- Actionjax1, on 12/20/2007, -2/+42My question to the RIAA - Since "music theft" via mp3's was your major cause of sales decline, why haven't your sales gone up since you started pressing charges against children, grandmothers, etc...?
- inactive, on 12/20/2007, -1/+40Maybe the masses no longer find thugs and tarts entertaining.
Probably just wishful thinking, though. - Flunk, on 12/20/2007, -1/+38No one takes into account how bad popular mainstream music currently is. Of course downloading plays a part in declining CD sales but if all the music being played on the radio is complete and utter ***** then you're only left with the 6 year old girls buying the latest High School Musical CD.
- tehWyman, on 08/19/2009, -0/+29I really just want to hear how Radiohead's experiment turned out to be honest..
0 to 10,000,000 doesn't really do it for me. - jeremyduffy, on 12/20/2007, -5/+33"2007 was the worst 12-month period the music industry has ever seen."
But that's enough about Rap music...
(Ba-dum PISH!) - dougerdo, on 12/20/2007, -2/+27We are in the wake of a digital age. Whats wrong RIAA can't you make your boat and 500,000 house payments or the Porcshe payment. I feel so sorry for you guys.
- 0260, on 12/20/2007, -1/+21weak attempt at being funny. the whole point of the article is that music sucked this year.
- bossm4n, on 12/20/2007, -0/+19What's with all the crap articles coming from MTV lately? They had more to do with the demise of music that any one thing I can think of in the last 25 years. Going to MTV for music info these days is roughly equivalent to hitting up McDonald's for gourmet dining advise.
- sesstreets, on 12/20/2007, -4/+19***** the RIAA for ***** the artists.
- Synn, on 12/20/2007, -0/+14Mainstream music is horrible right now. MTV no longer playing music videos doesn't help either. MP3s are only a small part of the problem.
I wonder why the industry and MTV decided to stop what they were doing in the 90's when they were successful and start doing what they have been now. - NecroSexy, on 12/20/2007, -0/+14It's amusing that mtv is reporting this.
- WorkingDead, on 12/20/2007, -0/+13MTV flat out stole our culture from us and gave us "Ho camp for over privileged emotional infants," in return. Clear Channel silenced the voice of an entire generation by buying all the radio stations. For the past decade, we have needed another 1969, and have been force-fed 1984.
- stillasleep00, on 12/20/2007, -0/+12In other news, underground music saw one of its best years yet in 2007...
- inactive, on 12/20/2007, -0/+12when o when will label execs wake up and realize their market model is failing -- we need cheaper, more accessible music -- you're squeezing out real music fans by overloading us with teeny bop / softcore rap/r&b *****, we've heard it all a thousand times before!
now try and concentrate on MUSICAL TALENT instead of IMAGE for a change. - macmonkey, on 12/20/2007, -1/+13How ironic. MTV reports on how bad the Music Industry is doing.
I'm going to watch Road Rules. - g3ra1d0, on 12/20/2007, -1/+13Great article it's a shame this guy writes for MTV though...none of the wonderfully articulate, high school wonder kids that frequent mtv.com will even understand the humor.
- Ryosen, on 12/20/2007, -1/+11I haven't even heard of a single band from the first paragraph. Then again, I'm not exactly what you would consider MTV's demographic.
- goldylocks7621, on 12/20/2007, -2/+12I used to look forward to hearing great new songs every year, and I was never disappointed, there was always at least a handful of songs in that category. Then a couple of years ago I noticed that basically there was no great music coming out anymore, period. This had never happened in the 30+ years that I had been listening to music.
It's debatable how much of the decline in sales is due to file sharing, but what's not in doubt is the steep decline in recent years in the quality of music. Everyone agrees on this. In my opinion this is all about the decline of our civilization. Younger people are less able to see this because they don't see how much better it was in the past, including the quality of music. - synthpop, on 12/20/2007, -0/+10so the biggest record industry moneymakers are: Nickelback, Carrie Underwood, Fergie and Hannah Montana. if these are the top guns then is it any wonder sales are collapsing?
- KhanneaSuntzu, on 12/20/2007, -0/+9The amount of large label commercial CD's or other products I bought in 2007 is zero.
Uhm.
The amount of large label commercial CD's or other products I DOWNLOADED in 2007 is zero.
That should be an indicator of applicable supply & demand parameters.
No supply. Zero demand.
Like zirconium diamond crucifixes. I just don't need any. - gk128, on 12/20/2007, -3/+12Apparently Arcade Fire's "Funeral" a 2004 album is on top albums of 2007 lists. Nice mistake there, he meant to put "Neon Bible".
- c0ldfusi0n, on 12/20/2007, -0/+8Bet they'll blame the piracy for the bad name they themselves gave to the industry.
- smackhero, on 12/20/2007, -0/+8the RIAA makes money off of other people's work. and they call filesharers "thieves."
what MTV and other media pundits don't understand about the situation is that the RIAA and its member do not represent the entire music industry. they might have represented the primary money-making machine behind the music industry for several decades, but they are hardly representative of true musicians and artists.
contrary to popular belief, file-sharing has not hurt musicians in general, or even record labels. what it has hurt is mainstream music--that which the "Big Four" represent. pop music sales are at a decline i'm sure. their marketing and business strategy have mainly focused on, and been streamlined for, exploiting the top 40 format and selling filler albums containing only 1 or 2 popular radio singles. this has been extremely profitable in the past because the radio was the public's primary gateway to music. having control of what the radio plays and exploiting the top 40 format allowed the Big 4/RIAA labels to drill those singles full of catchy hooks into people's mind and get them to buy crappy album after crappy album every 1-2 weeks when then rotation is changed.
however, with the advent of the web, downloadable music, filesharing and sites like Last.fm--and to a smaller degree satellite radio--the RIAA no longer have a monopoly on what music reaches the public. people find it makes more financial sense to just buy pop singles off of iTunes for 99 cents rather than waste money on filler tracks that they'll never listen to, and this has pretty much destroyed the lucrative profits the RIAA has come to expect from their biggest sellers.
the market has also seen a dramatic shift towards indie artists & labels as the Big-Four-run distribution chain and marketing/advertising system are circumvented. people are still buying full albums and CDs, and concerts/shows are just as popular as ever. more people are just flocking from major artists to the indie musicians that make up the majority of the "actual" music market, which up until now had largely been cut out of the action. - inactive, on 12/20/2007, -0/+7Let's hope 2008 is another record low year for the RIAA et al. *****.
- bdbr, on 12/20/2007, -0/+7Its the mainstream music industry that isn't healthy. And why is that? Take a look at MTV's top albums - almost all of them are NOT mainstream music. This list actually matches up well with other critics. Even MTV is shunning the music they push.
The music that is good comes from labels with very limited advertising budgets, so the average listener who depends on the radio for their music choices will never get to hear it. Its no surprise that the music industry isn't doing well under these circumstances. - offspring06, on 12/20/2007, -0/+7People won't buy ***** music or at least smart people won't buy ***** music.
- madmaxmedia, on 12/20/2007, -0/+7The David Byrne article in Wired was the best yet on the music 'industry'. The music industry isn't in the business of selling music, it's in the business of selling CD's in plastic cases. I don't necessarily consider them evil, there are other options for musicians now.
The music industry doesn't have to adapt, it can do whatever it wants including going down in a hail of lawsuits and poor record sales. I don't know how much the big record companies can actually 'adapt' anyways, as their entire business models have been put out to pasture by technology (legally or illegally.) To me this is not so much about right or wrong, quality or crap (when has pop music ever been made for quality's sake?), as it is about simple reality.
It's the musicians that can/need to adapt. Musicians and music will always be around, even if the business of selling optical disks is not. - bullcutter, on 12/20/2007, -2/+8i hope the whole market comes crashing down to be slowly rebuilt again. nihilism in the entertainment industry is much less frightening than nihilism in real life. the internet has pretty much killed the need for record labels --
anybody with any online dexterity can find any type of music in a few minutes. we don't need a label to tell us what to like any more, and i hope the industry takes that into consideration. - demonbaby, on 12/21/2007, -0/+6It's actually a pretty good/funny article, but as others have said, MTV is a ridiculous place for it. I submitted this feedback to the author:
"I like this article. It's witty and snarky and well-written. It references a lot of good music, and appropriately makes fun of bad music. The only problem with the kind of smugness on display here is that it's published on mtv.com. MTV, short only of Universal Music Group and a couple of the other majors, is one of the worst corporate entities in the music industry (although it's more in the "entertainment" industry). There is nothing less cool, less credible, or less supportive of quality music than MTV. MTV ***** out terrible, culture-eroding reality TV for twelve year old girls, and champions hit-of-the-second artificial pop and degenerate hip hop nonsense, all the while continuing to masquerade as a valid cultural barometer long after its influence and edginess had been buried underneath the exploits of trust fund teens and the grunting of diamond-encrusted grills. It is the epitomy of corporate, soulless, whorish crap, and on top of that displays a staggering interest in eroding the values of its pre-teen viewers through the utter trash of its programming. For a while it was a bummer how bad it had gotten, then it started to get funny, then it just got depressing, and now it's downright unwatchable. So, to the writer of this article, please take your talents - and your taste - somewhere else, so your valid thoughts aren't invalidated by their URL alone." - hixxy, on 12/20/2007, -0/+6320 kbps vs 128 kbps..
He obviously doesn't listen to enough music to understand how much better it sounds. - topgigmedia, on 12/20/2007, -0/+6Could it be that the pennies-per-song model (AKA "Russian" models like allofmp3.com) had anything to do with sales? I think pop music has alway had its lack of appeal - but the real additional factor here is that there are too many options out thereto choose from. We are exposed to a greater abundance, which in turn makes the pop genres look even worse by comparison. unfortunately for the RIAA - this is their bread and butter.
- smackhero, on 12/20/2007, -0/+6well, mainstream/pop music isn't exactly representative of the entire music industry. i imagine the bulk of musicians out there are indie musicians or completely unsigned. MTV, like the RIAA, equate major artists with the music industry, but that has never really been true. And now, thanks largely to the web/filesharing and even iTunes, indie artists/labels are starting to see a bigger share of the consumer market.
the music industry is not in a decline. the RIAA/Big Four labels' profits are in a decline, the music industry is simply shifting towards the indie artists. - merwin, on 12/20/2007, -2/+7Capitalism allows them to play the game however they want, even if it's the most stupid way imaginable.
- alkajazz, on 12/20/2007, -1/+6***** MTV
- bdbr, on 12/20/2007, -0/+5I don't think its contempt. I think its just an example of how poorly the big-budget big-label music is doing compared to small low-budget labels that depend on quality for sales.
- RIMUSAR, on 12/20/2007, -0/+5i blame it on that terrible soulja boy song
- JimXugle, on 12/20/2007, -1/+6or how much better FLAC sounds than MP3.
- AndreiOttawa, on 12/20/2007, -0/+4Well, in addition to crappy music MTV now also produces crappy articles. I could not even finish it.
- cjschmidt, on 12/20/2007, -0/+4The industry has raped and abused music to the point where no one cares any more. They raked in the money when it was culture and evolved naturally. Then they spent 10 years turning it into a commodity, creating groups and pushing "new" material onto us until the only real music that exists is exploitive rap, exploitive teeny pop, and whiney "alternative". Music doesn't naturally evolve any more, it's pushed and manipulated by suits.
Even if they could flip a switch and stop piracy, no one really cares any more.
Let it die. Hopefully it will come back strong in a new form. - realjames, on 12/20/2007, -0/+4I'm surprised the RIAA hasn't blamed Napster in awhile.
- bullcutter, on 12/20/2007, -1/+5yes well said, music of all types is now instantly available, so those free from the mind control that MTV and American Idol imposes can find out about new (and old) music for themselves, perhaps music _they_ like, music driven by the desire to create art instead of profit.
- cryptomystic, on 12/20/2007, -0/+4I only saw a handful albums from your list that I liked.
music is subjective my friend. - JoeVet, on 12/20/2007, -0/+4Seems the pinnacle of capitalism is supply and demand and the RIAA is not supplying a product in a form demanded by the customer. The customer wants music to play at home on a home entertainment system, and computer, and portable device, and car. The RIAA does not supply such a product so the customer is forced to go elsewhere or pay a separate fee to hear his music on each separate device. Since paying for a CD does not give you the right to rip the music to your computer or to your mobile device, the customer is faced with the dilemma of illegally copying his purchased music or paying for the same song multiple times, once for each device. The customer rightfully sees no justice in paying multiple times for the same song, he/she is reduced to illegal activity. Since the punishment is the same downloading becomes preferable, not because he isn't willing to buy but because there is no way to satisfy all the requirements for legal ownership. When the RIAA finally capitulates it will be because they failed to understand the market. Simple economics.
- cresswga, on 12/20/2007, -1/+5FTA: "ยป Amount of feet my jaw dropped when I was informed what Soulja Boy's "Crank That" was really about: 5"
I haven't heard the song and know nothing about the artist but can anyone tell me what is was about? I am intrigued... - Sidonas, on 12/20/2007, -3/+7If they really wanted to play the capitolism game the RIAA would change to profit from the demands of the market, rather than clinging to an archaic system and whining when all of their consumers walked away. Don'w whine about something you don't understand.
- petebot, on 12/20/2007, -0/+4That is awesome.
- geardosdotnet, on 12/20/2007, -0/+4I worked for 8 months at an independent music distributor, and I saw sales get worse and worse as the year went on. One of the biggest problems was the high price. We would sell cds for 10-13$ a piece and retailers would DOUBLE the price. That's 100 PERCENT markup. That kind of markup is unheard of in most other industries. Combine that with overall poor as hell quality of releases (aside from a few gems) and that can explain most of the problems right there.
Vinyl sales are UP though, some distributors/labels like merge and touch and go actually give you a link to download the mp3 version of the album when you buy the vinyl, which is a great idea. All vinyl sales are final too, no returns, which is great for distributors. Vinyl is still kicking, it just won't die. But it is a niche market. - saltinekracka20, on 12/20/2007, -5/+9Actually, it's just selfishness. Whatever suits what they want, that's what they'll support. Whether its the freedom to be a douchbag, or the "freedom" to steal music.
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